The Victims of Terrorism: An Assessment of Their Influence and ...

Pan Am 103: The Predecessor to 9/11 21these activities, pressing the U.S. government to adopt new emergency safety measures andharden aircraft against terrorist attacks (Hudson, 2001a).The Pan Am families’ class action suit filed against Libya for its role in the bombing bearssome similarity to the 9/11 victims’ struggle to sue known supporters of terrorism. The caseagainst Libya, specifically, sparked renewed internecine squabbling and disagreements amongPan Am families. These divisions intensified in the summer of 2003 as negotiations led theLibyan government to agree to make $10 million payments to each of the victims’ families.Payment, however, was made contingent on the U.S. government’s lifting of all punitive sanctionson Libya. Although the vast majority of families accepted an initial $4 million paymentwhen the UN ended its 15-year enforcement of sanctions in September 2003, others remaineddistrustful of Libya’s motivations, refusing to accept what they dismissed as “blood money”and castigating those families that had agreed to the settlement. Susan and Dan Cohen, forexample, have outright refused the offer to accept any money and believe that the situation hasturned many families “into Libyan agents,” lobbying on behalf of murderers (Wald, 2004).9/11 Families, unlike those for Pan Am 103 who were given no alternative to litigation, wereoffered reparations in the form of the VCF. It is important to realize, however, that, althoughthe VCF stipulates that recipients cannot sue the airlines or the U.S. government, it does notprevent them from filing charges against foreign parties, which many have done. 3On April 23, 2004, President Bush reduced economic sanctions against Libya in recognitionof that country’s positive step earlier that winter to forgo its weapons of mass destruction.This action also greatly benefited the U.S. oil industry, which gained access to Libya’srich reserves. Although it appeared to many that the agreement was rewarding Libya for pastcriminal behavior merely on the promise to act better in the future, those Pan Am familiesthat supported the settlement argued that sanctions should be lifted as an incentive to producebehavioral changes in the Libyan government (Kessler, 2004).Pan Am 103 family representatives came to Washington to meet with administrationofficials and congressional aides a week before the July 22, 2004, deadline stipulated by Libyafor removing the final U.S.-imposed sanctions. Some 230 signed a letter to President Bushrequesting that the sanctions be lifted (Wald, 2004). However, the agreement among mostfamilies concerning issues of compensation only superficially transcended group boundariesand disputes. Over the previous decade, for example, members from Families of Pan 103/Lockerbie assumed the more active role in demanding that the Clinton administration imposeharsher fiscal penalties on Libya. Their proposals, which included an oil embargo to encourageColonel Moammar Gadhafi’s government to admit responsibility for the bombing, led tothe reinforcement of sanctions on Libya in 1996 (Lardner, 1992; Kessler, 2004). Although thevast majority of Pan Am families now favor lifting these sanctions, members of VPAF 103have been most vocal in this pursuit, thereby gaining media attention. Glenn Johnson, Jr., forexample, the group’s current president, has maintained his position that, if the governmentintends to remove the sanctions, it should do so before the deadline set by Libya, so that thefamilies can receive at least the promised reparations (Wald, 2004). This observation reinforces3 Lemack (2006a). Ultimately, 97 percent of those victims eligible to apply opted into the fund.